The Jealous Brothers- T. Lockard (WV) 1969 Bush B
[From: Michael Bush, Folk Songs of Central West Virginia 3; pp. 91-92 (version B). This fragmented version has some very precise stanzas (the 1st and 8th) and is missing the ending. Bush's comments are not very accurate although he apparently did some preliminary research. The [missing lines] that he's added are in the wrong place.
R. Matteson 2016]
The Jealous Brothers- sung by Mrs. Theora Lockard of Lewis County, W. Virginia; in May, 1969. Collected by Michael E. Bush.
1. One night while they were setting courting,
Her brother happened to overhear,
Saying, "Your courtship shall soon be ended,
We will send you headlong to your grave."
2. Next day, these brothers went a-hunting
Along with them this man did go.
They hunted over high hills and mountains
And through the valleys that were unknown.
3. [missing lines]
Until they came to the Bahu Braes[1],
And there they did kill him and throw[n].
4. And when came back home they had returned,
Their sister asked for the servant man,
Saying, "we lost him in the woods a-hunting,
And never more could we him find."
5. One night when she was weeping,
He came and stood by her bedside
[lines missing]
6. Saying, "my love leave off your weeping,
For it's the nature of female kind.
I think your brothers have been hard and cried[2]
In such a place could we you find."
7. She hunted over high hills and mountains,
And through the valleys that were unknown,
Until she came to the bambu briers[3]
And there they had killed him and thrown.
8. Three days and nights she stayed there by him,
And kissing him on her bended knees,
Till at length she was constrained
To utter forth such words as these.
9. Saying, "My love I'd stay with you,
Until my whole world burst with woe,
But I fee sharp hungry come creeping o'er me
Which forces me back home to go."
1. I think braes is briars and bahu is bramble or in this case, bamboo.
2. Bush says the last two lines make no sense. Actually they make sense but are missing a few words: "rash and cruel" (both rash and cruel) are the usual words although "hard and cruel" works. it needs to have "I think your brothers killed me" at the beginning of the line. For the last line the easy fix is to change "we" to "me."
3. Usually "bamboo briars"